“Ask a Priest: Is Heaven Closed to Someone Who Willingly Risked Death?”
Q: I’ve been trying to get an answer to these questions since I was 8 years old. I understand that if a person takes his own life, he will not go to heaven. My question is, if a person knows that an action will kill him, and he does the said action anyway, is he also denied entry into heaven? What if that action is to save another at the cost of his life? How is that any different? Examples: the plane crash in Pennsylvania on 9/11, or a firefighter trying to save a baby. – Sarah
Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC
A: It seems that you were a deep thinker from your youth!
A quick clarification about your first point. While suicide is always an objectively grave evil, the Church invites us to have hope for the souls of the deceased.
Three numbers from the Catechism are worth quoting:
2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.
2282 If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law. Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.
2283 We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.
The second type of case you mention is much different.
Here, a person risks mortal danger with the goal of saving another, not killing himself.
Even if death is a likely outcome, the act of bravery is allowed under what is known as the principle of double effect.
This principle requires that a number of conditions be met.
For one, the evil (one’s own death) is not intended. Willingly facing a situation that might kill you isn’t the same as wanting to die.
Another condition is that the evil effect (one’s own death) is proportional to the good that is sought (the saving of a baby from a burning house, for instance). A firefighter wouldn’t be justified risking his life to save a cat.
In the case of United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, the passengers tried to stop the terrorists in order to regain control of the plane and avert another disaster like the one at the twin towers in New York. The passengers weren’t looking to kill themselves.
(Read more about the principle of double effect online.)
In short, this is why professions that endanger people are morally justified. These include police work, firefighting and the military. In each case people are guarding the lives of others, at the risk of putting themselves in harm’s way.
Their bravery might, in fact, earn them a higher place in heaven, for Jesus did say, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
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